The Best One Yet - 1st pod back: Our 3 big biz wishes for 2021

Episode Date: January 4, 2021

In our first pod of the year, we’re going digestible bold: Our 3 big business predictions for 2021… (it’s good to be back). DoorDash should acquire IHOP. Spotify, Netflix, and Peloton should team up for “The Anti-Apple-Alliance” $30/month bundle. And Uber and Airbnb should go from one thing to every thing.Last year’s “Big Biz Wishes” episode:- Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/snacks-daily/id1386234384?i=1000460290975 - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2inOZBtdlc8edLyibZwloT?si=fFHmoRNTTH-l6x06bDuEoAGot a SnackFact? Tweet it @RobinhoodSnacks @TBOYJack @NickOfNewYorkWant a shoutout on the pod? Fill out this form: https://forms.gle/KhUAo31xmkSdeynD9Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. And this is Snacks Daily. Welcome back. It is Monday, January 4th. We are back picking off 2021 with our best pod of 2021. Jack, I haven't seen in weeks. Did you get bangs?

I am so flattered that you call these little hairs bangs. Zachers, everything Jack and I are about to report on hasn't happened. This isn't your typical podcast, but probably these things won't ever happen either. But it would be awesome if they did. this episode is our three big business wishes for 2021, which means this is our best pod yet of 2021. Jack, what's our wish number one for 2021? DoorDash should acquire IHA become the good guy of food delivery. Jack, wish number two of 2021. Spotify, Netflix, and Peloton should team up. We're calling it the anti-Apple Alliance. AAA rolls off the tongue. Sounds great. Third and final

wish for 2021. Uber and Airbnb should expand? to everything. We're talking gig apps go from vertical to horizontal. Full transparency, Snackers, we did our first big biz wishes podcast one year ago. Jack, I remember it so well. Last December, we made three big business wishes for 2020 and we ended up one for three. We were one for three on that thing. Not bad. Three 33 gets you into the Hall of Fame. Yes, it does. It's bad for like the percentage for an exam score, but one out of three is good for like a shack free throw. One year ago, Snackers, we wished that. that Apple would acquire Tesla if Tesla got into trouble.

That was our wish for 2020. It's kind of like the opposite happened on that one, Jack. I feel like that was the opposite. Tesla didn't get into trouble, and it actually looks more likely that Tesla acquires Apple. Tesla's going to pull the old reverse spack of Apple. Jack, our second wish that we had last year, how did that one do? We wish that Amazon would allow naked shipping, aka eliminate the boxes in 2020. Yeah, gave buyers the option to have a product delivered in its own packaging,

it shipping to save on cardboard. That didn't really happen. Jack, I think Amazon shipped more boxes than in any period in history over the last 365 days. No company has ever shipped more boxes than Amazon did last year. Okay, our third wish, we were off on the first two by a whole lot, but our third wish, this one was pretty good. We wish that Chipotle would open table-free restaurants. Get rid of the tables.

Delivery and take-out only. Jack, that one kind of happened. That one actually happened. That one definitely happened, not just with a Chipotle, but with a bunch of other restaurants too. Great work. By the way, Snackers, if you want to hear that episode from last year, our predictions about 2020, we included a link in the description of this episode. But it's time Jack and I got to our three big business wishes for 2021.

Our moms think these are brilliant ideas. We think you will too. And don't disagree with our moms. Let's hit our three wishes. You're tuned in the snacks daily. We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get something legal out the way. For snacks about the hair ain't food, it's air candy. They don't reflect the views of the Robberhood family.

It's all informational just so. We're not recommending any securities. It's not a research report or investment advice. Not an offer or sale of a security. Snacks is digestible. Business news for you. Robahood Financial, LLC, member Fenra slash SIPC. For our first wish, we wish DoorDash would acquire and rescue a restaurant.

This is how DoorDash can actually win the food delivery app wars. All right, Snackers, here's how this wish came about. About a month ago, Jack and I noticed that Friendlies, a northeastern go-to spot, had gone bankrupt. I got three pieces of evidence for you. Honka Chunk of Peeby Fudge. Classic. Death by chocolate. You're hitting me.

The Fribble. Jack, I feel you. The fribble. A milkshakes, awkward cousin. By the way, can we talk about the spoon? Yes, this is what Friendly's calls the spork. They call it a spoon. Now, if you don't know Friendly's, Friendly's.

Friendly's has 850 locations, or they did have 850 locations, now they're down to like 138. It was once a mighty American institutional restaurant, but now they're so tiny and so low in value, they got acquired for $2 million. That's right, only $2 million, and someone walked away with the entire Friendly's restaurant chain. Now, Friendly's went bankrupt earlier this year. Another chain that went bankrupt? Well, IHop has a franchise owner of 50 restaurants across the southeast that went bankrupt, And they went bankrupt.

Also went bankrupt. Chuckie Cheeses, publicly traded company, by the way, they went bankrupt. They have a presence in 47 of our 50 great United States. We are talking about hundreds of restaurants that are part of chains that are barely hanging on. So true.

And they're pretty much for sale, these brick and mortar restaurants. They are for sale. Which is why Jack and I were Chadman a weekend and we said, hey, we've got one wish for 2021. We want DoorDash to buy a major down and out, but iconic restaurant chain. Like Friendlies, IHop, or Chuckie Cheeses. Yeah, DoorDash can rescue the brand, modernize the menu, create local delivery takeout hubs out of their locations. When DoorDash IPO this month, we covered them on snacks daily, and we said that they specialize in America's suburbs. Well, Nick, this would make a splash across hundreds of American suburbs that have these struggling restaurants.

Or how are they going to pay for all this? Well, they just raised $3 billion from their IPO. They could spruce up each of these physical locations of the restaurant they acquire. DoorDash could highlight IHop's stuffed French toast on the ultimate digital billboard. Yes. The top of the DoorDash app. Right in the DoorDash app. And then they could actually highlight DoorDash on the ultimate physical billboard, Jack.

The side of the restaurant. Yeah. Tons of people are driving past every day. Now it won't be friendlies. It'll be friendlies by DoorDash. All right, Nick, I'm whipping on an apron. Let's take a look inside the kitchen. Already got one on.

We think DoorDash could continue selling the classic friendlies and IHop cuisine, but for delivery and takeout home. And then here's the kicker, Jack, and I thought of. Convert the dining room to what we call a dash basket, basically a kitchen to whip up other food based on the local taste. If you're using the kitchen to make IHOP's chicken and waffles, you can use the dining room, which isn't a dining room anymore, and now it's a kitchen, to make a fried chicken sandwich

because that's what the people want. That means that the restaurant that DoorDash just acquired now serves both IHop food and other food, but all of it through the DoorDash app. and for delivery and takeout only, because that's how people want to eat. Now, in case you're skeptical, we've seen tech acquire food retail before. Easy acquisition to forget, but Amazon acquired Whole Foods for $14 billion back in 2017. And immediately gave online-only Amazon a physical food distribution center where their customers actually lived.

The result? Today, 500 Whole Food locations are crucial for Amazon's same-day grocery delivery strategy. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at IHop Friendlies and DoorDash? Buying a restaurant chain could make DoorDash the good guy of food delivery. All right, Snackers, currently the big food delivery apps like DoorDash and others, they're charging what's basically a tax on all the restaurants out there. Nick, if you're a restaurant, you don't want to be on these delivery apps because they take like a 20% fee. But you kind of have to be on those delivery apps.

You have to be on the app or else you can't compete because that's where customers go to find takeout. And then you pay like 30% fees and it's not fun. If DoorDash buys physical restaurants, though, and hires actual cooks and chefs, then it will become a member of the community. DoorDash becomes a job creator, a savior of friendlies, a late-night eat provider in the flesh. Because of the delivery tax, Nick and I were just talking about, none of the delivery apps really have any public goodwill.

But DoorDash could get some PR for this. Help out the local economy in Georgia where IHOP is now bankrupt. up here in Vermont where you drive by and see a decrepit friendlies on the side of the road, DoorDash could revive that Friendly's restaurant. Right now, DoorDash is a $50 billion soldess platform that just connects you to food. By acquiring a physical chain like Friendlies, it'll actually create food. For our second wish for this year, 2020 was basically the rise of the big tech bundle. In 2021, we want to see the rise of the anti-big tech bubble. That's right. We want to see the rise of the anti-big tech bubble. That's right. We want to see the anti-Apple Alliance. We're calling it the new AAA. The new

AAA. Snackers, the Apple One bundle. That's what Apple named it's bundled. So far, not a big deal. Came out a couple months ago. We think it will become a big deal. No one is talking about this yet because the pricing isn't that competitive, but it mixes six separate Apple services into one single monthly subscription. All right, Jack, let's check these off. You got Apple Music, Apple News, Apple TV, Apple Fitness, Apple ICloud, and Apple Arcade. The spirit of Steve Jobs costs $30 a month for the premier version that includes all six. But here's the catch. You are now committed to the Apple ecosystem. Jack, you are a forced member of Club Apple and you're going to like it. This is bad news, though, for Apple service competitors. It's hard to compete with that stuffed stocking full of Apple

goodies. I mean, what are you going to do? It's just 30 bucks a month for all that stuff. Are you going to subscribe to Nike's fitness app when Apple Fitness is pretty much given away in Apple One? Well, Jack, let me answer your question with another question. Are you going to subscribe to Dropbox when Apple Bundle includes ICloud already? Absolutely not. I'm not going to. It is tough to get iPhone users like Nick and I am to subscribe to your service when Apple is

bundling it in. And that's what led to our second wish for 2021. We want smaller tech brands to create their own bundle. The anti-Apple Alliance. We're thinking Spotify, Peloton, Netflix, team up, and they should offer one monthly rate that includes all three services. Spotify, Peloton, and Netflix should be founding members

so that we can call this PelloSpot-O-Spot-Flix. But it doesn't really work, then we thought maybe we'd call it NetSpot-Ton. Or spot Pel-Fix. But then you're dealing with so many syllables, it's kind of tough, so we said we're going to go with the old AAA. Snackers, the real reason Spotify, Peloton, and Netflix are perfect

is because those are mirror images of Apple Music, Apple Fitness, and Apple TV Plus, and they're seeking the same users. Exactly right. The target customer for this AAA bundle is tempted by Apple's Bumble, so they may as well all team up and form a rival to get them. Spotify, Peloton, and Netflix, they would be stronger united because bundles in general reduce churn. Yeah, you're less likely to cancel any single subscription if it's bundled in with a whole bunch of others. Also, bold call here, we think the anti-Apple allowance would actually have better products than what Apple can offer. Apple's got like 480 projects going on right now. They're trying to like make a headphone that connects to your shoe while you're walking. And yet they still don't have the Apple car.

No, they don't. But Spotify, Spotify does one and only one thing audio. Peloton does one and only one thing, Jack. I know you love saying this. You could say it. Bingeable shows. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our bundles over in the anti-app? Apple Alliance. Make the number one tech storyline this year is going to be big tech monopolies. That's why we need the anti-big tech bundle. So Snackers, first, Google got hit with an antitrust lawsuit. Then about a month ago, Facebook got hit with an antitrust lawsuit.

And then Google got hit with another one right after that. This year, with the new administration especially, big tech breakup is going to be the theme. And we think they're coming after Tim Kirk and Apple next. Yeah, so Apple is going to be stuck hiring lawyers. They're prepping for an epic legal battle. that means it's the perfect time for the little guys. We're calling Spotify, Peloton, and Netflix the Little Guys, because combined, there were $330 billion.

Apple is worth a whole bunch of lifts about $2 trillion right now. We think this $30 a month anti-bundle from these three companies would be a legit competitor to Apple's bundle. And we wish the anti-Apple Alliance would be the real tech storyline of 2021. For our third and final wish for 2021, Airbnb and Uber basically do one thing, Jack and I wish they'd expand to everything. Airbnb should become the sharing company and Uber should become the delivering company. Jack, it's hard for us to talk about Airbnb without laughing a little about the illegal Airbnb

you got stuck in in the West Village last year. Nick, you saved me. I would have had nowhere to stay in Manhattan that night. I did. If not your sister's bedroom. Jack came up town, crashed to my parents. Thank you, Katie. Thank you. But Uber and Airbnb, they're basically best. friends, they're literally neighbors in San Francisco. Airbnb and Uber both created platforms, one for rides, one for short-term housing rentals. Then both went on to become verbs, both based in the Soma neighborhood, both IPOed in the last two years. Both destroyed old school industries with disruption, one with taxis, one with hotels. And that means both companies are basically vertical companies. They're focused on one industry. One's on taxis and ones on

hotels. All right, the last both here, Nick, they're both valued around $100 billion-ish, but we think that could double if they expanded horizontally. And that leads to Jackson my third and final wish for next year, Uber and Airbnb, can you please expand to everything already? Snackers, Uber started with rides just for humans in the backseat. They expanded already to rides for eats and rides for cargo. Now, we're thinking they could expand that to rides for anything. Why couldn't an Uber driver deliver medications or urgent documents or groceries or packages. Now, Uber's already showing signs that it's doing this kind of delivery of extra stuff already. Right. They have already shifted a bit from vertical focus just on rides for

humans to horizontal focus of delivering anything, not just people. So Uber's showing signs of this, but Airbnb has a huge opportunity because it hasn't experimented at all with doing stuff horizontally. Snackers, Airbnb started with sharing your place for a short-term stay. That was it. Yeah, then it added sharing experiences in longer term days. Pretty straightforward. But Airbnb could expand that business model big time if you could share anything on Airbnb. Why does it have to be your house? Why can't you share your unused car on Airbnb?

Or your unused basement space, which could be useful for someone else to book storage space. Jack, I don't even know how to mow because I grew up on 93rd Street. But technically, from what I've seen on TV, it looks like you're only doing it for like a couple hours a weekend. I think each block only needs one lawnmower. It needs one lawnmower. put that thing on Airbnb. Snackers, let's think more. Why can't you rent out your 30-foot pool and hot tub combo that the owner never uses for a pool party on Airbnb? Oh, not bad, Jack, what if they also happen to have a chocolate fondue found and no one has that feels highly shareable? Totally shareable.

Going from a vertical focus on sharing houses to horizontal focus on sharing everything, that's what Airbnb should be doing. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Airbnb and Uber? These gig companies don't specialize in rides and stays. No, no, no, no. No, no, no, no. They specialize in safety, simplicity, and monetization. Snackers, your nana has probably taken an Uber at this point. Your nephew can't walk but can book an Airbnb on his mom's phone. The reason these companies have made Ubering and Airbnb safe, simple, and monetizable. Uber has made riding in the backseat of a stranger's car.

Yeah, honestly, like pretty darn safe. Airbnb has made staying in a stranger's condo pretty darn safe. So Uber could, you know, buy a rival ride hail company, and Airbnb could technically, by a rival hotel chain. That would be going deeper vertically in the space they're already in. Instead, Jack and I think they should expand their core competency and do it as wide as possible. That would be going further horizontally. Uber should become the delivery anything app. Airbnb should become the Share Everything app. If they do, these San Francisco neighbors could double their valuations. Jack, can you whip up our three wishes of 2021 for us?

Wish number one, Doordash should acquire IHop or friendlies or national food change. It could become the good guy of food delivery finally. Wish number two, Spotify, Netflix, and Peloton, they should team up. We're calling it the Anti-Apple Alliance, the old AAA for 2021. Our third and final wish, Uber and Airbnb should expand to everything. They should go from vertical to horizontal. Now, time for our snack fact. This one's ended in a very timely way from snacker Evan Hamrick over in lovely Atlanta

at Georgia. Snackers, have you picked your account to bill buddy this year? Yes. Who's going to nag you to go to the gym like you didn't last year? We should probably say our buddy, Timmy, is a good spotter. He's a good spotter for this kind of thing. Of all the people who sign up for a gym membership this month, 4% of you won't even make it past January before quitting.

All right, but then it gets really bad after that. 14% of you aren't going to make it past February. And a whopping 80% of people who sign up for a gym membership in January have quit after five months. Yeah, kind of an aggressive move by us to not use first person plural on that. I feel like we were very directive. Yeah, true. We're just as bad as everyone.

Snackers, we missed you. We really missed you. Jack, you look fantastic. I love the sweater. Speaking of New Year's resolutions, if you've got a buddy who's like, sick of political news, looking for a new news habit, H. H. H. H. Y, Y, Y, Y, Y, Y, S dick. Have you had your snacks daily? Ask them.

Share with them your favorite recent episode of Snacks Daily. If you know, you know. We'll see you tomorrow. Can't wait. And before we go Snackers. Big happy birthday to Christine over in Lovely Falls Church, Virginia. And happy birthday Jackie Marino in New York City. And Brittany Tong in Montfield, New Jersey.

And Jay Ferris in Hernando, Michigan. Turning 65 and Caleb Damran in Fort Worth, Texas. Happy birthday, J.B. Blank Fine, also in the Big Apple. And Chris Landis in San Clemente, California. And happy anniversary, Sam and Sandesh Gandhi in Detroit, Michigan. And a huge congratulations to Doreen, who just finished her last round of chemo down in Davidson, North Carolina. Doreen, you inspire us all.

Best way to kick off the year. Snackers, this one's a doozy. This is Jack, and I own stock of Spotify, Peloton, and Airbnb, and Amazon, and Nick own stock of Chipotle and Apple and Airbnb. The Robin Hood Snacks podcast you just heard reflects the opinions of only the hosts who are associated persons of Robin Hood Financial LLC

and does not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets, Inc, or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates. The podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a recommendation to buy or sell any security and is not an offer or sale of a security. The podcast is also not a research report and is not intended to serve

as the basis of any investment decision. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member FINRA, SIPC.